Chakas (Earth-4001)
04-343 Guilty Spark, initially known as Monitor Chakas and known to the Covenant as "the Oracle,", is a Forerunner monitor that was originally tasked with maintaining Installation 04. Originally an ancient human known as Chakas (pronounced "Chay-kas"), he lived his youth on Earth, then known as Erde-Tyrene, and he inadvertently became involved in the Forerunners' schemes due to a geas the Forerunner Lifeshaper, the Librarian, had imprinted on him at birth. As Guilty Spark, he played an important role in the ancient Forerunner-Flood war, as well as the modern-day Battle of Installation 04, the heretic uprising within the Covenant, and the events that transpired on the Ark during the Battle of Installation 00. History The history of 343 Guilty Spark is the same as his mainstream counterpart up until the end of the Human-Covenant War in March 2553. Personality & Traits For a significant portion of his youth, Chakas was a largely amoral opportunist, frequently engaging in irregular acts of fraud, robbery and physical violence for personal gain or simply for the thrill of it. He later reflected on himself as having been ignorant, foolish and immature, and lacking any particular goal until he met Riser, who provided him a focus in work and purpose. Chakas changed a great deal since leaving Erde-Tyrene, especially after examining the memory imprints of his ancestors. He despised the realization of his own inferiority in comparison to the knowledge and understanding possessed by his ancient memories. Virtually all of his beliefs, such as the afterlife of the humans' animistic religion, were taken apart during his travels; after experiencing so many things beyond his comprehension, he could only see his past worldview as antiquated. Having lived much of his life fending off for himself with his personal interests in mind, Chakas was not a particularly social person. He regarded Riser as his closest friend and the more social counterpart. The two often used the Florian language to communicate with one another, something the cha''manush'' rarely did outside of their own kind. After being separated from Riser on Installation 07, he came to realize just how much he had come to depend on him. He was apprehensive of forming new attachments and despised responsibilities placed upon himself, such as Gamelpar having him promise to take care of his granddaughter. However, over time, he also found himself caring for her, although he attempted to deny this even to himself; Forthencho's imprint dryly commented on the immaturity of this. Chakas's relationship with the Forerunners was complex and conflicted. For much of his early life, like most humans of the time, he viewed the Forerunners as gods who controlled human lives from far away. During the journey on Installation 07, he came to resent the Forerunners' meddling and their often incomprehensible acts of cruelty. He even became somewhat disillusioned with the Librarian after realizing she was not the all-powerful deity he had come to view her as. Despite this, he eventually decided against cooperating with his ancestors' essences in Mendicant Bias's ploy and chose to help the Forerunners instead. When first meeting Bornstellar, Chakas planned to trick the Manipular and rob him when the opportunity presented itself, as he had seen in his dreams for some time. However, he soon found that he and Bornstellar were much alike, both possessing a rebellious mentality and a passion for adventure. Despite his initial plans, Chakas could not bring himself to hurt the Manipular. Chakas did not seem intimidated by Bornstellar at first, although he was somewhat resentful for dragging him into the adventure later on. In the long run, he did not appear to be upset with Bornstellar; years later, after his conversion into a monitor, Chakas still remembered him as an old friend. While his biological body was killed and disposed of, the complete pattern of his body was transferred to the monitor construct and the Didact stated that he would be able to simulate physical sensations - much like the machine-archived humans he had previously encountered in Genemender's village. Chakas compared his new existence—a construct housing numerous human essences—to the "Finger of the First Man," an ancient human myth about the first human who held the souls of all human beings in his finger. After a hundred thousand years of isolation, with memories of his human life purged thanks to compartmentalization protocols, 343 Guilty Spark was quirky, detached and analytical. For Spark, protocol dictated all; the slight emotion he showed for the death of an ally was truly grief only for the inconvenience of finding another to assist him. While he gladly assisted those who requested his help, if his allies decided to prevent him from completing necessary actions - such as the firing of his ring - he would turn on them without hesitation and dispatch them with lethal force. Tens of thousands of years of monotonous duty spent monitoring his installation and waiting for a Reclaimer appeared to have had a significant effect on the Monitor's sanity. Spark showed many characteristics of rampancy. He loved to learn and to take records, even in the face of his installation's imminent destruction; accessing the Pillar of Autumn's shipboard databases, he was intensely fascinated about finally having access to human history up until that point, referring to the record as "all of our lost time." He also showed other odd behaviors such as humming and singing. Typically, he was also untroubled with matters of life or death. When Sesa 'Refumee and Tartarus were killed by the Arbiter, he appeared casual, although he was remorseful when Sesa 'Refumee was killed. Spark's detachment resulted in a tendency of rarely giving more information than he had to. For example, on Installation 04 he merely told John-117 that activating the ring would stop the Flood, neglecting the portion about how all life in range of the ring would be wiped out to do so (although he may have been genuinely unaware that the Master Chief was completely oblivious to any of this, assuming the Spartan to be the IsoDidact). Likewise, he did not tell the High Prophets that the ring was a weapon when asked about the location of Installation 05's Index, only telling that truth to the Covenant when asked directly by the Arbiter. While bound by protocol, Guilty Spark seemed to genuinely enjoy the prospect of firing the Halo Array, unlike his fellow Monitors such as 049 Abject Testament. Although created from the essence of Chakas, 343 Guilty Spark became his own entity after his conversion into a monitor. This was the result of a number of factors, including the combined wisdom of the numerous human essences stored within his reborn self, the immense amounts of added knowledge and programming to enable him to effectively perform his duties, as well as the mental trauma Chakas suffered in his human form; he himself stated that he "went mad". The suppression of most of his memories and knowledge upon his assignment to Installation 04 in the name of compartmentalization further diverged him from his original self, in addition to his primary personality array splintering to numerous fragments over tens of thousands of years. As a Forerunner A.I., 343 Guilty Spark possesses highly advanced abilities with electronic systems. As with UNSC and Covenant artificial intelligences, Guilty Spark's programming prohibited him from carrying out certain actions. He cannot, for example, retrieve the Activation Index from the Library or use it to activate Installation 04, instead requiring a Reclaimer to carry out this task. Spark's protocol bound him only to contain a Flood outbreak from Installation 04, so when Installation 04 was destroyed, his directives were also terminated. This means that he no longer had a priority prescribing his actions concerning the Flood - he was free to make choices concerning the Flood, as he did on Installation 05 when he assisted in the deactivation of its firing sequence, risking the containment of a Flood outbreak. According to Spark, the loss of his ring left him with only one purpose: to aid the Chief as a Reclaimer, which Spark admitted was something he should have done from the beginning instead of trying to hinder him. This caused the two to put aside their differences and Spark to join forces with the Chief again against the Flood and the Covenant. Due to his abilities in connection with the Halo Array, Spark proved to be a powerful ally and seemed to take commands from Commander Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, and the Master Chief without hesitation as part of his new function in life. When he discovered Installation 08, his priority protocol reactivated, and he adopted the ring as his replacement. When Sgt. Maj. Johnson declared his intent to fire the Halo, which would destroy it, Spark unhesitatingly killed him. Despite his treachery, it is unlikely the UNSC would have been able to prevent the premature activation of the Halo Array without Guilty Spark's assistance. Trivia *The only person who ever refers to 343 Guilty Spark as "343 Guilty Spark" is himself, when he is introducing himself. Others refer to him as "The Oracle", or "The Monitor" when speaking of him, or even shorten his name to "Spark", or once "Robot", to which 343 Guilty Spark protested against, and also "Tinker Bell" by Avery Johnson in Halo 2 after he asks about where to activate the rings while in standby mode and answered sarcastically. He has also been called "Light bulb" by Johnson in Halo 2 (to Tartarus: "Please...Don't shake the light-bulb.") and Halo 3 ("A tank's a tank, light bulb."). *343 Guilty Spark shoots a beam similar to both the UNSC Spartan Laser and the Forerunner Sentinel Beam. When comparing power through hacking or modding, the beam is noticeably weaker than a Spartan Laser but much stronger than a Sentinel Beam. 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